Sam Jackson & Zooey Deschanel Featured in Siri Ads

New iPhone ads highlighting the Siri personal assistant feature of the iPhone 4S aired Monday in the U.S., as noted byThe Next Web and Shawn King of Your Mac LIfe. The ads, appearing during ESPN’s SportsCenter, feature celebrities Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel using Siri to help plan a dinner date and a rainy day in, respectively, and illustrate Siri’s ability to converse naturally with users.

The Samuel L. Jackson ad displays a Verizon logo at the end of the commercial, while the Zooey Deschanel ad displays a AT&T logo (other versions of the ad feature Sprint). The similar style of the ads with interchangeable carrier logos suggests a joint production between Apple and the respective U.S. carriers.

As noted byMacRumors, the ads, if produced by Apple, mark a return for the company to utilizing celebrities portraying themselves. Apple has recently used celebrities John Hodgman and Justin Long as the characters of “PC” and “Mac,” but it has been many years, dating back to the “Switch” and “Think Different” campaigns, since the company used celebrities as themselves.

We’ve contacted Apple for clarification on who produced the ads but we have yet to hear back.

Thanks to reader Sean who directed us to the higher-quality versions of the ads, above.